Tonight I reread a review I'd written some
months before of the LessLoss Blackbody.
These free-standing devices had an elusive
but almost magical effect on the music.
Having now lived with them for months, it
was interesting to be reminded of their
place in the evolution of my stereo. And I
was especially struck by the descriptive
language I had used in that review, much of
which could be transposed verbatim into the
current review of the Bybee Golden Goddess
Super Effect Internal Bullets (hereafter
SEIBs). Which should perhaps not be too
surprising since both devices are ostensibly
aimed at maintaining signal purity by the
suppression of noise. One by absorbing
extraneous electromagnetic radiation, the
other by filtering the inherent noise of
electron flow. Both devices use proprietary
technology and both are shrouded in some
degree of mystery. We don't know exactly
what's inside either one, or exactly what
those insides actually do — not in the sense
that, for example, we know what's inside a
resistor or a capacitor, and how those
insides behave in the presence of electric
current. Jack Bybee is quoted in a Dick
Olsher review from 2002: “[W]hen
developing the technology we did not fully
understand why certain metal oxides absorb
or damp specific frequencies and to the best
of my knowledge we still do not." While
LessLoss may be secretive for purely
business reasons, Bybee Technologies is
secretive also for national security
reasons. You've probably heard before that
the quantum purifier was originally
developed by Jack Bybee for U.S. Naval
submarines and exactly how it is put
together is, in the immortal words of J.
Edgar Hoover, “a secret” in compliance with
Federal law.

While we don't know exactly what's inside
these devices or specifically what those
insides do on a physical level, we do know
something of the purifier's effect in
reducing a certain type of noise called “1/f
noise.” 1/f noise is inversely frequency
dependent; like pink noise its spectral
density increases as the frequency
decreases. Bybee states that 1/f noise
occurs primarily in solid-state devices and
is significant below 2,000 hertz, well
within our ears' most sensitive range. Like
thermal (white) noise its source lies in the
quantum realm, but unlike thermal noise, its
spectrum correlates with the musical signal,
so it tends to not draw attention to itself.
But while 1/f noise may not be clearly
audible, it is insidious. It is a special
form of distortion that rides the waves of
an audio signal. As Dick Olsher notes,
“Once buried within the music, it is
reasonable to speculate that 1/f noise
diffuses image outlines and adulterates
harmonic textures.”

(Another benefit provided by Golden Goddess
purifiers — inverse dispersive delay effect
— is not relevant to AC power where only
frequencies of 50Hz or 60Hz are concerned,
but is valuable when a quantum purifier is
in the signal path. Because high frequencies
propagate through wire more rapidly than low
frequencies, there is a 21 picosecond
dispersive delay built in that helps realign
frequencies. Bybee describes the perceived
effect of restoring this alignment as a
“...more impactful and coherent reproduction
of program material.”)

Bybee
purifiers are starting to show up in high
end audio equipment, as well as in specialty
applications. There are power cords and
dongles and loudspeaker connectors, and
multi-pinned modules for power supply rails
(which are active rather than passive
devices), as well as the quantum purifiers
themselves, resistor-like cylinders with
axial leads for the DIY audiophile. I
believe their presence in home stereos will
increase as more audiophiles experience the
unique contributions of Jack Bybee's
creations. It's the nature of the beast that
even a brilliant circuit design executed
with impeccable care, using the best quality
components, will still benefit from quantum
purifiers. I was pleased to discover a local
example of this, a company called Reflection
Audio — just down the road from George
Lucas's Skywalker Ranch — that designs and
builds preamplifiers and power supplies.
Their OM1 Quantum preamplifier uses eight
Bybee purifiers. I can readily understand
this decision where the designer is shooting
for the very best possible sound quality. I
hope and trust more manufacturers at the
pricier end of things will follow suit.

When, during a telephone conversation,
Clement Perry highly praised Bybee power
cords, I decided to indulge a long-standing
curiosity about quantum purifiers and
proposed a review. I requested and received
several Golden Goddess SEIB purifiers, which
are designed for high current applications
like filtering AC power. There are other
quantum purifiers for lower power
applications, but because I have had several
eye- and ear-opening experiences with AC
power purification in recent years, I opted
for that approach and installed them inside
my amplifiers in series with the IEC male
sockets. (This is an admittedly unusual
gambit for an end user and I do not
recommend it. First, such modifications
should not be undertaken without lots of
prior experience working with electrical
circuits, tools, soldering and crimping
equipment. Second, in most cases such
modifications will void your manufacturer's
warranty. And third, remember Murphy's Law?
Best to stick with OEM power cords or
dongles.)

As I had also found with the Blackbodies, it
was remarkably easy to listen to music at
higher SPLs. The effect was rather
wonderfully enhanced by the SEIBs. This may
be because the levels of distortion and
noise are reduced sufficiently not to draw
any attention to themselves, conscious or
unconscious, even when the volume level is
high. Or maybe what's happening is more
abstruse. A reduction in group delay. A
reduction of intermodulation distortion.
Extremely subtle details emerging from a
reduced noise floor. Or maybe what I've
heard referred to as a 'restoration of
harmonic relationships' — which I suspect is
a clever way of repackaging the more
pedestrian phrase 'lowering harmonic
distortion.' Or maybe the fundamental
improvements I am hearing are due solely to
a lowering of 1/f noise. The only thing I
know for sure is that there is an overall
audible change that I like a lot. Music is
more dynamic, more spacious, more nuanced.
Music is more real. I sort of get used to
it, then a particular passage or even a
particular note on the piano will utterly
grab my attention by its sheer beauty.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that
the ear is a far more sensitive detector of
distortion (or perhaps it would be more
descriptive and inclusive to call it
unmusicality) than the most sophisticated
electronic measuring instruments currently
available. (In this regard it's worth noting
that employing Bybee purifiers in test
instruments can drop the noise floor to
unprecedentedly low levels!) You may not be
able to pinpoint exactly what it is you're
hearing or to find exact words to describe
it, but you can feel it. Something
that — so far at least — test instruments
cannot begin to do. Without the purifiers
(and lets not forget the Blackbodies) there
is a certain edginess, a certain physical
discomfort playing music at high sound
levels. It has been months since I was
requested by my wife to turn down the volume
— a new experience for me after many years
as an audiophile. In fact the volume control
is generally set 7 to 10 decibels louder
than I could have gotten away with before.
Music listening has become especially
pleasurable for me because at last I can
play things loud.

Okay, perhaps you're thinking, who cares
about playing music really loudly except the
hearing-impaired youth of recent generations
who have grown up on MP3s and deafening
(literally) rap and rock? Well, audiophiles
who wish to listen at “realistic” sound
levels care a lot. Realistic sound levels.
Live instruments are loud. Sumi Jo singing
Der Hölle Rache kocht, Michel Block playing
the Revolutionary etude, Max Roach
performing Onomatopoeia — live, all
would be very loud indeed. But thrillingly
so. Delightfully so. And that to me is one
of the salient and most valuable
contributions of the Bybee purifiers. I can
jack up the volume to where the goose bumps
emerge, without the uncomfortable side
effects of subtle distortions.

Another characteristic I've been noticing is
a greater sense of instrumental placement in
the sound stage, and more spaciousness
around the performers. There is what I might
call an ease as well as a purity to the
sound. As I said, I'm not quite sure how all
this comes about, but I'm awfully glad it
has.

The SEIBs have a perceived effect on the
bass range. Now, I wouldn't suggest that any
device inserted in the mains can resolve the
issue of a loudspeaker that rolls off an
octave too soon. And let's face it, really
good quality loudspeakers that roll off at
twenty hertz are far beyond the price range
of many audiophiles besides myself. (One
reason subwoofers were invented.) But I have
observed more than once that removing noise
and distortion — unmusicality — from the
signal tends to improve the subjective sense
of low frequency extension. With the SEIBs
in line, one of the first things I noticed
was an enhanced solidity and richness to the
mid-bass in piano reproduction. Richter's
inimitable forte fortissimo chords are not
actually louder of course, but they have
more foundation, more guts. They sound less
like a recording and more like a pianoforte.

I was listening to Beethoven's magnificent
Fourth Piano Concerto played by
Gerard Willems (ABC Classics 980 046-5) and
the sense of being there was
practically breathtaking. Bass performance
is obviously improved. There is a new
clarity, crispness and dynamism to the
pianoforte, and an impressive bigness to the
orchestra, a more realistic sense of scale.

And
listening to the same concerto performed by
Stefan Vladar with Barry Wordsworth
conducting the Capella Iostropolitana
(Naxos 8.553266), there is a finesse, a
crispness and clarity to the orchestra that
is both impressive and musically convincing.
It really is difficult to pin down just what
the sonic differences are, but somehow I am
drawn into the inner workings, the
architectonic relationships of Beethoven's
finest piano concerto as never before. (I
highly recommend this CD by the way.)

Bach's so-called “Goldberg” Variations
was originally published with a title page reading,
“Keyboard exercise, consisting of an ARIA with
diverse variations for harpsichord with two
manuals...” It is one of very few keyboard
compositions for which Bach indicated
instrumentation. So when keyboardists began playing
this work on the piano, there was some justification
for purists' being outraged. I am not. Of my fifteen
versions of the Goldbergs, most are for pianoforte.

Later
came Kurt Rodamer's solo recording of the
Goldberg Variations for guitars (Sony SK 60257).
Multi-tracked, obviously, using custom-made guitars
by Richard Schneider, the CD took years in the
making. The sound is nothing short of luscious and
amazing in this labor of love, particularly with the
SEIBs doing their stuff. Like other reviewers
groping for adjectives, I resort to that chestnut,
blacker background. Just how much blacker can black
be? Can one actually detect a reduction in an
already inaudible noise level? Or is the lowering of
1/f noise simply perceived in that fashion?

Then we come to the latest outrage the purists will
have to put up with, Martin Schmeding's recording of
the Goldberg Variations on the Gottfried-Silbermann
pipe organ (Cybele hybrid SACD 030.802). A long,
long way from a two-manual harpsichord! But I
suspect J.S. Bach would have liked this one: he
actually played this particular instrument when it
was new, about 250 years ago. It's gorgeous,
multifarious voicing (and Schmeding's sometimes
idiosyncratic registration choices) make for a
uniquely valuable contribution to the recorded
literature. And the sound is, quite simply, the most
realistic I have heard. (Other, that is, than when I
played organ in Oxford and Utica decades ago.) Many
18th century pipe organs — those that is that have
not been damaged by 19th century “improvements” —
have an unsurpassed purity of tone, and though I
have praised this CD before, I don't believe it has
ever sounded so splendid, so capable of transporting
the listener through space and time.

As for Mr Bybee's remarkable creations, their
bona fides are beyond question as the U.S. Navy
can attest, and it is our good fortune that their
inventor thought to apply this technology to audio
so we can share in its unique benefits. If I have
left you with a less than exact sense of what the
Golden Goddess Super Effect Internal Bullets have
done for my stereo, it is not for want of trying. I
have reviewed other equipment and devices over the
years that have impressed me, but the quantum
purifiers are qualitatively different. As if their
bailiwick were in an uncommon area of audio
reproduction rarely addressed by audio engineers or
advertising agencies. Sure they're about noise in
general, and they're about a special sort of noise
in particular, but their practical effect seems to
me closer to that sense one sometimes gets in a
particular room, in a particular forest grove,
looking at a particular painting or reading a
particular poem, when everything just feels more
right, more natural, easier.

(A final addendum. It wasn't until I had nearly
completed this review that I learned that Golden
Goddess Super Effect Internal Bullets are currently
available only as OEM components. These particular,
and rather pricey, high-current devices are used in
a number of OEM products including power cords and
power conditioners. The Bybee Technologies web site
lists some 36 manufacturers in the U.S.A. and
worldwide licensed to use quantum purifiers in their
products. Bybee Technologies itself manufactures and
sells several products using Golden Goddess Super
Effect technology including Speaker Bullets, RCA
Bullets and XLR Bullets, all of which have been
widely reviewed. They also sell raw, axial lead
quantum purifiers in several current ratings for DIY
applications and a number of Slipstream devices
primarily for use in the signal path. Among the
former are Large Gold Quantum Purifiers with the
same current rating as the Golden Goddess SEIBs but
employing an older, somewhat less effective
technology (and costing much less). So if you find
yourself intrigued by my observations regarding
SEIBs, there are a number of options open to you.)

For price and further
information on Bybee Quantum products see featured
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